


light the candle

by XellyChan



Category: Slayers (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Body Paint, F/M, LON Vessel Lina, Monster Flirting, Monster Stalking Is Courting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22477984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XellyChan/pseuds/XellyChan
Summary: Her eyes slide closed and she laughs wryly, leaning imperceptively into his touch. “What a pain, I don’t want to be a monster magnet.”
Relationships: Lina Inverse/Xellos
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	light the candle

**Author's Note:**

> for the Slayers Secret Santa 2019 hosted by @slayersweek. This goes out to you @glittercanblog! I’m sorry it’s late-ish and kinda short, but I hope I managed to get your prompts well enough! I feel like I’m slowly building an out of order xellina verse dsjhsdjsdhj. 
> 
> I didn’t lift the title from it, but this fic was written to Carino by The Marias.

i.

"You're alone," Xelloss says, dark eyes sliding open slightly, a glimmer in the gloom of the forest. Lina's fearless gaze catches his, unintimidated by the predatory appearance his split pupils give his carefully pleasant smile. He stretches out on his seat high up a towering tree, lounging across a thick branch. Making a show of looking around, searching for Gourry and the others; he tilts his head and makes a curious noise low in his throat when they fail to appear, "How unusual."

Lina's mouth purses into an unimpressed frown. "Yeah, well sometimes a girl needs her alone time for treasure hunting."

Laughing softly, Xelloss drops from his perch and wanders into her space, circling her slow and wolf-like. He puts his hands up in mock innocence when Lina snaps him a smoldering glare. "Now, now, Ms. Lina, no need for ugly looks." He rounds her left side, catching the edge of her cloak and tugging it playfully. "It's just refreshing to see you after so long."

Lina arches an eyebrow but besides the low zest of irritation, Xelloss feels no fear or trepidation from her. She crosses her arms over her lithe chest, hip jutting out and foot-tapping as she keeps him in her line of sight, "Just what do you have planned now, fruitcake?"

Xelloss smiles. "Thwarting boredom." His main body unravels in the astral plane, a thin piece of himself sliding from his physical shadow, a tendril of formless black. It threads itself with her hair, braiding into the red strands and tugging playfully.

Lina jumps with a short, startled yelp, her hands flying to her hair. Instinctively spinning around to see what it was, she turned her back to Xelloss, losing sight of him. Cutting the connection with his shadow before she can catch sight of its source, he moves in like a predator taking its chance. Curling around her right shoulder while tapping her left, making her spin in another circle, growling as she does. Wrapping his arms around her, he cups her cheek, ruffling his gloved hands through her hair, he chuckles. "It seems you've got something stuck behind your ear, Ms. Lina."

"Wha-  _ Xelloss- _ " she growls, stiffening in the cage of his arms. Lovely embarrassment and annoyance blossoms up from her skin like warmth from the hearth. It tastes smooth and sweet, like a confection. He chuckles again, willing the shadow into shape and pulling it free from red strands.

Holding a dark petaled flower in front of her nose, he unravels from around her and presents the flower properly with a flourishing bow. "For you, Ms. Lina," He says, winking cheekily at her. The flower is a terrible thing, its stem dark and withered like a dead tree branch, the bloom itself the color of a fresh bruise, red veins running through each petal. At its center protruded a small cluster of white filaments, the peeking anthers like tiny fangs, giving the flower the appearance of a tiny fanged maw. 

Lina twitches, her expression flattening. "That's horrible," she says, flicking careless fingers at the flower still being held up to her. 

Not bothering to feign a pout, Xelloss smiles wider. "I think it's rather lovely."

She shakes her head, surprising him. "The flower's fine," Lina snorts, snatching it away from him and pinning it recklessly back behind her ear. A thrill goes through him, feeling a piece of himself being handled so roughly. Being kept so close. Her prideful, unwavering gaze finds his once more, pinning him in place like the flower. "It was that two-bit birthday party sorcerer's trick you pulled." A disgusted scoff leaves her, a vehement sound from such a little body. " _ Something behind my ear?  _ Ugh, that's bad, even for you."

Stomping closer, chin held high and looking down her nose at him, Lina pokes him roughly in the chest, digging in her finger. "That's why I'm demanding emotional compensation."

ii.

"I'm surprised you're helping me," Lina says, her eyes intent on the faded runes embossing the spines of the two tomes in her hands. "Or rather, I'm surprised you're helping without giving me the runaround, this time."

Xelloss taps a finger to his chin, smiling vaguely. "Well, of course, Ms. Lina. We're comrades, aren't we?" After a moment, his smile widens, pleasantly grating at the corners as he slides another tome between her line of sight. "And you  _ did _ ask, didn't you, Ms. Lina?"

Shoulders hunching up to her ears, Lina snatches the book away from with a snort. Her thin hip checks into his, irritation flowing over his pallet refreshingly, a little tart when surprised pleasure lances through the annoyance as she reads the rune titles. 

Like the strawberry lemonade he had once in the outerworld. 

How fitting. 

Bright eyes slide his way, something not quite like a grin quirks at the corners of her mouth. "I did ask, yeah," she begins, clever fingers flicking through the pages. The tome's ancient spine complains as she lays it across her forearm, flipped open to a diagram. 

Power whispers from the page. 

iii.

"You're always watching me," Lina says. There's no anger or accusal, just calm fact and maybe a little exasperated amusement. "I don't get it. What's the gain here? Your lord can't possibly care about one bandit killer that much," She points out, stretching out without a care, her chin propped on her palm. Her fingers and cheek are covered in smeared ink. In the low lantern light, the ink catches the flickering light, dark and glimmering. 

If Xelloss had a human's penchant for wishful thinking, he might have imaged the ink to be ichor, the burning blood of the gods and their servants. "Modesty doesn't fit you, Ms. Lina," he chides. "You know you're much more than that to the monster race."

Lina traces her fingers over the symbols, the shape of a name older than creation. Her eyes shutter, lashes fanning over her cheekbones, bronze over ivory. The silence dreams between them and Xelloss thinks of ashes and gold. He reaches out and touches her cheek, his thumb sliding over the corner of her mouth, tracing the bow of her bottom lip.

"How did you know?" Lina asks, not pulling away. Her question could be for a hundred things, from the significance of the tome, to knowing what she truly is beneath that mortal shell of hers.

The answer is all the same. She is Lina Inverse, and she has touched the golden nothingness behind creation. That's all that matters.

Xelloss smiles. "That's a secret."

Her eyes slide closed and she laughs wryly, leaning imperceptively into his touch. "What a pain, I don't want to be a monster magnet."

iv.

"Ms. Lina," Xelloss says, dark eyes burning. 

"Don't talk," she scolds, head buried in the pillow of her arms. Red hair falling sprawling atop the desk and books, framing her like a halo of flames. Her bare, pale, lithe spine curves into a fascinating arch and Xelloss traces his gloved fingers down the length of it, stopping at the waistband of her tights. The wings of her shoulder blades tense, sliding beneath her skin as he drags the ink brush from her nape to the dip in the small of her back.

"Ms. Lina," He tries again, leaning forwards, pinning her down with a steady, deceptively strong hand. Nudging his mouth against her ear, tucking back the fall of thick waves, he makes a soft, tutting sound. "I can't finish the seal if you keep squirming."

Shifting on her knees, the chair creaks beneath her, a shudder running through her tiny body. Her shoulders hunch, and she turns just enough to glare at him, red-cheeked and scowling through the veil of her hair. "Oh just get on with it, I know you're almost done." Her eyes avert, sliding to the grain of the wooden desk. Her embarrassment perfumes the room, but a sigh passes through her, and she relaxed. 

A soft hum leaves her as Xelloss swirls the brush, taking care to write the runes. A stopgap, a very small one, against the inevitable. Even Lina, as fascinating and bold as she was, couldn't fight creation, couldn't fight the void. "This is what you wanted," he reminds her, slowly, deliberately using his index finger to wipe away a stray line on the small of her back, causing her to twitch and arch under his touch. "Nothing would have stopped you from taking the manuscript and having one of your friends do this," he points out, chuckling when she hisses, tucking her hands beneath her chin, not arguing for once. 

"You know why I chose you," She says, finally. 

In a fit of what would be vanity in any other being, Xelloss signs his work with a small, toothy flower above her hip. Touching the drying ink, willing power through it, letting it sink into all that pale skin like a brand, like a claim.

Like a promise.

"Because even when you're all alone, I'll be here," Xelloss answers. 

Like a threat. Like a claim. Like an oath.


End file.
